Recently, Dan Yaman, President and CEO of Live Spark, was quoted in MPI magazine; highlighting how events must be interactive to be effective.
From:
Learning By Experience
by
Wendy Helfenbaum | Feb 04, 2015
“Studies point out that the emotion does not have to be from the
material that’s being presented, but it has to be generated in some
way,” he says. “Being able to create a level of emotion through
increased engagement and interaction is the biggest trend we’re seeing
among our clients: How do you keep the audience at a peak state and
create a fun experience?”
Ditch the Data Dump and Keep Things Simple
Too many conference sessions include overwhelming amounts of complex
content, often worsened by presenters misusing PowerPoint.
“PowerPoint
[presentations] should be clear so as to enhance what the presenters
are talking about—anything else will create an overload situation,
where the brain shuts down,” Yaman says. “Get the information honed
down to what is absolutely critical. Make that information really
meaningful and ask, ‘What do I want the audience to do after they
leave?’ Make sure everything’s aligned to achieve those outcomes.”
People retain information more effectively when presenters combine art,
science, psychology and fun—but preparing groups is crucial.
“At events, everyone focuses on the presentation phase, without fully
preparing the audience,” Yaman explains. “We’ll spend a half-hour
before bringing out the first presenter—even if he’s the CEO—to get the
audience totally set up for success.”
By doing this, the audience is more likely to receive and retain the information, he says.
“Evoke a need for the material that’s being delivered by creating
curiosity and a strong buy-in from the audience so they’ll really
focus—put the responsibilities for the takeaways on the audience,”
Yaman advises. “We say, ‘This could be the most powerful two days of
this event. Are you willing to step up and put it all in?’”
Keep the Energy Alive
Next, control the room and the audience’s state of mind to keep attendees engaged by switching things up.
“If they go vacant, the client’s message is gone,” Yaman warns. “At
four- or five-minute intervals, present the same information in a
different manner: Tell a story, show a video, do a case study; just
keep it alive.”
One way he accomplishes this is by occupying the moments between
presenters with relevant, on-screen questions and arming the audience
with remote-response keypads.
“It’s a shot of adrenaline that helps re-engage and re-energize the room for the next presenter,” Yaman says.
Live Spark also threads gaming elements throughout the entire event—as
opposed to scheduling a single team-building challenge for one
day—which fosters emotion while building upon education with quizzes
pulled from presentations.
Yaman says. “We want people to be sitting at the edge of their seats, having a good time,” Yaman says.
He believes AniMates—computer-animated characters that show up onscreen
throughout the event to interact in real time with people onstage—can
greatly increase content retention and comprehension.
“It’s not the sophistication of the equipment—we could do the same
level of engagement with a sock puppet,” Yaman says. “If you know how
to create a rapport with the presenters and, more importantly, with
your audience, these characters can break down complex issues into
simple, relevant chunks that everyone will understand.”
Live Spark recently introduced Eddie the Eagle as a mascot for a heavy
equipment company in South Dakota. Eddie voiced the audience’s concerns
through live interactions with presenters while keeping the audience
engaged.
“We’ve done studies for Gartner and found that the biggest indicator of
whether someone thought something was successful was how much
interaction they had with the other people in the audience,” he says.
“A lot of learning happens in the moments when presenters and
participants can interact with each other. Create different tracks so
that people can go after what they think they need.”
Read the rest of the article "Learning by Experience" on MPI's website.
